A Productive Day

I made the decision last night that today would be better spent at home than going to class. I would only have one “real” class session, the other two professors weren’t going to be there. So I decided to use one of my allowed absences. I was pretty happy when later in the morning I got an email saying the one class I would have gone to was canceled! What a relief! I could get a lot more done at home today. I was going to try to sleep a little later, but nope, I was up at 5:15 AM. More time to get things done!

I started doing laundry and the dishes. With only two of us living here, the dishwasher is constantly having to be run and unloaded. It’s a never ending task—but much better than standing at the sink washing dishes! I hate to know what it will be like when we have a family…!

After that, I started sorting the piles of clothes that we’ve accumulated to take to a consignment store, stuff they’ve rejected, etc. I have a big garbage bag full of stuff for Goodwill, started packing a box for items I’m going to try to sell on eBay, and started another consignment store box. Much more organized! Speaking of, I have made a lot of money at the consignment store! They are picky about what they take, but almost everything they’ve taken has sold. I gave up saving the money to buy clothes because I’m certain I’ve spent a lot more on clothes than I’ve made. It’s expensive when you basically HAVE to replace your entire wardrobe, not that I mind doing so, but the checking account does! haha. I’ve been having fun reinventing and finding my style. So now we just pick up the money at the consignment store and put it towards groceries or whatever we need. It’s nice to have the extra cash!

I started a little shopping online for Hubby’s birthday. I’m always thinking of things that I should get him and then when it comes time to start shopping I can’t think of what to get him!

And then I was feeling hungry for breakfast. I ate egg beaters with turkey sausage, a slice of homemade banana bread, a bowl of sliced strawberries and banana, and a glass of milk for 8 points.

A delicious breakfast!

While continuing more dishes and laundry, I sipped on coffee with creamer for 1 point.

Wouldn’t ya know I got summoned for jury duty during the time we’ll be gone on our cruise. But I was able to go online and try to defer it to a later date—let’s hope it works!

I took a quick break on iTunes, looking for a book I’m reading for school as an audio book, but no such luck! That would have made it too easy. But I did find that there are a million free podcasts out there about anything and everything! How fun! You can even find free podcasts to help you learn a new language. I love listening to talk shows in the car, I love learning new things, etc. Hubby, not so much. lol He gets so annoyed when I listen to my talk shows. I subscribed to Jillian Michaels’s podcast and a few others. I listened to Jillian while I cleaned for the rest of the morning—LOVED it. You can get her great advice for free of charge. I got through quite a few of her podcasts and I learned a lot. She is so good at what she does. Check it out on iTunes.

I was doing all of this cleaning because we have guests coming tomorrow night. So I had to start planning meals too. I like to be able to offer dessert, so I decided to make some pumpkin bars. Yummy! And since I organized my main cupboard in the kitchen this morning, I found a couple of cans of pumpkin. Perfect! I followed a regular recipe—no more adding Splenda to try to save calories these days. But instead, I cooked it in a deep cookie sheet and cut them into 48 bars—so without frosting, they come to 3 points each. Which I think is perfectly affordable.

And let me tell you, I cut a sliver of a bar to see what they tasted like, but said no dessert until supper, which is my new rule. It was HARD. I really wanted one of those.

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, tomato, a boiled egg, mushrooms, and ranch dressing for 6 points.

Salad dressings are another story. I want to start making my own, but haven’t taken the time to start researching any recipes yet. But I found this all natural dressing at the grocery store which cost me my arm and leg, but is what I was looking for. It will have to be used in moderation at almost $5 for this small bottle.

But look at the ingredients:

And compare them to light ranch:

A big difference, huh? Sure it will be a little higher in points, but overall it will be better for our health.

Like I said, I really wanted dessert. So instead, I ate an apple with PB for 3 points.

I was starting to hit my mid-day slump, which was unacceptable because I was only half way done cleaning the house! I don’t usually like to have more than one cup of coffee a day, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I had another cup of orange flavored coffee with vanilla creamer for 1 point. SO GOOD.

I finished cleaning the downstairs by early afternoon. And then I sat down to do some research for school. I was surprised when hubby got home early! It also made me feel really good when he came in and told me he could tell I had been working really hard today. A good feeling to know that my hard work paid off and the house looked good! And better yet, he helped me finish the upstairs, so we were done in no time! It feels great to have a clean house—even if it took me all day to get it done! I am counting this as my activity today because I moved all day long. I should have worn my HR monitor!

For supper, I heated up leftover Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza with green beans for 9 points.

And I had just enough points for a pumpkin bar with cream cheese frosting for 4 points. Delish!

That puts me right at my target for the day.

I know I told you that I would be doing a giveaway a day this week, but I just don’t have the time to do one today and probably won’t tomorrow either! I know! I’m so sorry. But life has gotten in the way, unexpectedly. Tonight, I have to run to the library and do research, which I was planning on doing this weekend, because I found out the library is closed all weekend due to the holiday. So it will be a later night tonight. But don’t worry, I will be posting the giveaways at a later date.

But you can check out my review of Vi-Shape Protein Powder.

Enter the Grandma Dee’s Granola Giveaway.

And enter the My Memories Suite Giveaway.

Or go ahead and sign up for the Thankful Healthy Blogger 5k! It’s only a week away!

Good news is, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!

I want to ask you all to visit Rick’s blog and cheer him on. He is starting fresh with the goal to lose 150 lbs. We all know how support motivation and support is!